This invention relates to an elongate, at least partially flexible instrument for insertion into a patient's body during a medical procedure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device and method wherein the orientation of a distal end portion of such an elongate insertion member is controllable.
Typically, flexible endoscopic and laparoscopic insertion members have distal end portions whose orientations are controllable via a plurality of cables extending longitudinally along the insertion members from proximal ends thereof. Such a method for controlling orientation, however, is not utilizable with angiographic catheters. Such catheters are much thinner and usually longer than endoscopic or laparoscopic insertion members. Consequently, control of the distal end orientation of angiographic catheters is practically impossible via conventional cable mechanisms.